Fallacies ·of the Higher Criticism 73 7. It seeks support in a variety of reasons, such as style, historical discrepancies, and legal contradictions, all of which prove of little substance when examined fairly. EIGHTH FALLACYe: THE PRIESTLY LEGISLATION NOT ENACTED UNTIL THE EXILE. VIII. Another case of forgery is found in the origin of the priestly legislation, if we are to believe the higher critics. This legislation is contained in a large number of passages scattered through Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. It has to do chiefly with the tabernacle and its worship, with the duties o p f le t t h o e t p h r e ie i s n t s s ti a tu n t d io L ns ev o i f te r s e , li a g n i d on w . it I h t i t s he at r t e r l i a b t u io te n d s t o o f M th o e se p s e i o n scores of places. It has a strong coloring of the Mosaic age e a rnnd ac o l f e, th w e it w h il a d n er o n r e d s e s r l l i y fe a . dm It in a i ffi st r r m at s io t n he of ex t i h s e ten ri c t e ua o l f s t e h r e vi t c a e b s . But this is all imagined, for the legislation is a late production. Before the exile there were temple services and a priesthood, t w e i n t , h a c n e d rt u a s i e n w re a g s u m la a ti d o e n o s f c t o h n i c s e t r r n a i d n i g tio th n e ; m bu , t e a it s he a r w o h r o a l l e o t r he w l r e i g t islation was enacted by such men as Ezekiel and Ezra during and immediately after the exile, or about 444 B. C. The name of Moses, the fiction of a tabernacle, and the general coloring o ta f ti t v h e e a M nd osa to ic s a e g c e u , re we t r h e e g r i e v a e d n y it ob in ed o i r e d n e c r e t o o f re th n e de n r a i t t io a n u . tho B r u it now 1. : The moral objection here is insuperable. The supposi tion of forgery, and of forgery so cunning, so elaborate, and so minute, is abhorrent. If the forgery had been invented and e n x es e s c , u i t t ed wo b u y ld w h ic a k v e e d be m e e n n le t s o s p o r d o io m u o s t . e B so u m t e w s h c e h n e i m t e is o p f re s s e e lfi n s te h d to us as the expedient of holy men, for the advancement of the religion of the God of righteousness, which afterwards blossomed out into Christianity, we must revolt. 2. The theory gives 11s a portraiture of such men as
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